BEIJING , Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Former Gen. Xu Caihou of China's People's Liberation Army has confessed to taking bribes, investigators announced Tuesday.
Xu was formerly the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party's military leadership arm and a member of the 25-person Politburo, the high-ranking party council.
Military prosecutors have finished their investigation of the case, in which Xu is said to have accepted "extremely huge" bribes, for himself and for his family, in exchange for promotions and other advantages, the state-run news agency Xinhua said Tuesday. It added he was expelled from the Communist Party, discharged from the military service and had his general's rank revoked.
With the investigation, begun in June, completed, the case will now proceed through China's courts.
Only one Politburo member, former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, is ranked higher than Xu of those under investigation for corruption.